Gadget Fest! Amazon Preps for Tab Battle, Nokia Looks to Win 8

By Tiernan Ray

The Street today has been preparing itself for an onslaught of new gadget introductions this week, about which The Wall Street Journal‘s Steven Jonesyesterday afternoon offered a curtain-raiser, including debuts of devices by Google‘s (GOOG) Motorola Mobility, Nokia (NOK) and Amazon.com (AMZN)to unveil new product to try and compete with Apple.

Tomorrow morning kicks off with an event hosted by Nokia in Manhattan, starting at 10 am, Eastern time. Analysts expect Nokia to unveil new phones in its “Lumia” line running the “Windows Phone 8″ operating sytem from Microsoft (MSFT). You can catch the webcast of the event here.

Then Moto will hold its event at 2 pm, Eastern time, also in Manhattan. The company is expected to unveil at least one version of the “Droid Razr” smartphone series carried by Verizon Wireless (VZ). You can catch the webcast of the event here.

Then finally on Thursday, Amazon is expected to host a press even in Santa Monica, California, at 10:30 am, Pacific Time. There will not be any live stream provided for the event.

It’s expected Amazon will introduce an updated version of its “Kindle Fire” tablet computer, and, possibly, a larger version with an 8- or 9-inch screen, according to speculation last week by Stifel Nicolaus‘s Aaron Rakers, Sanjiv Wadhwani, and Abhishek Ghuwalewala. It’s also been speculated Amazon may announce ad deals to subsidize the Fire.

Regarding tomorrow’s Nokia event, Wells Fargo‘s JenniferFritzsche, who has a Market Perform rating on the shares, is expecting at least two new models from the company . She writes that Nokia’s main challenge will be to “get traction” while Google’s Android dominates in smartphone sales by volume:

We would expect that AT&T (likely exclusive on the 920) and possibly T-Mobile to be the first carriers in the US to offer the phones, although we would note that Verizon is expected to launch a WIN8 phone later this year. While Nokia is launching its new phones in front of the new iPhone launch (expected next week), it is still unclear to us how Nokia will get traction against Android/iOS even with the refreshed WIN8 phones.

R.W. Baird’s William Power, who has an Outperform rating on Amazon shares, wrote today that there is a “mini tablet battle brewing” between Google’s “Nexus 7,” a rumored smaller version of Apple’s iPad, and the updates to Kindle that Amazon may introduce. He itemizes the expectations for Thursday:

With 22% share of tablet sales in the U.S. since launch, Amazon has sold 5-6 million Kindle Fire units, by our estimation. This week, Amazon will likely introduce a new high-end Kindle Fire with meaningful hardware improvements. We believe that Google’s Nexus 7 tablet provides a reasonable basis for setting expectations, including a faster and more powerful processor (e.g., Quad core), higher screen resolution (e.g., 1280 x 800 pixels) and camera for taking pictures and video chat. We also believe that it makes some sense for Amazon to update Fire with a more recent version of Android (original Fire uses a “tweaked” version of Gingerbread). In addition, Amazon will likely introduce new “Paperwhite” e-readers with and without 3G, and also Kindle Touch with backlighting (similar to Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight).

Topeka Capital Markets‘s Victor Anthony, who rates Amazon shares a Buy, with a $400 price target, sees Amazon besting the Nexus 7, and like Power, projects a “fierce” battle for the smaller tablets:

We expect a significant improvement to the current sold out Kindle Fire and believe that the specs will rival that of the Nexus 7. A competitive price point, combined with Amazon’s developing digital media ecosystem, should allow for the successful launch of the device. We also expect Amazon to hint at launching the Kindle Fire in Europe [...] When Apple launches the iPad Mini, anticipated in 4Q, we expect Amazon’s shares to react negatively to the news Ultimately, we view the market as big enough for Amazon to continue to sell millions of these devices (has sold 8M to-date), particularly as it expands overseas. The differentiators include the digital media ecosystem discussed above and a strong distribution platform via the Amazon.com websites.”

Barclays Capital’s Anthony DiClemente , who has an Equal Weight rating on Amazon stock and a $220 price target,today writes that he expects Amazon will be aggressive with price, and he thinks the company is riding a solid initial performance for the existing Kindle Fire:

We are expecting two new tablet devices: an updated 7″ Kindle Fire and a new 8.9″ device that may compete more directly with the current iPad. We also expect multiple SKUs differentiated by price, connectivity, and possibly device memory. While reviews of the initial Kindle Fire were lukewarm upon its launch, it was largely a success, as Amazon is now sold out of the device. We estimate it sold ~7M units from 4Q11-2Q12, enough to capture 22% of the US media tablet market since launch (according to Amazon), and a mid-single digit share of the worldwide market in 1H12 [...] Finally, we believe Amazon will announce a new back-lit, 6″ eReader device that could compete more directly with the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight and allow for better reading in low-light environments.

About Tech Trader Daily

Tech Trader Daily is a blog on technology investing written by Barron’s veteran Tiernan Ray. The blog provides news, analysis and original reporting on events important to investors in software, hardware, the Internet, telecommunications and related fields. Comments and tips can be sent to: techtraderdaily@barrons.com.